Products that include media such as still images, video, audio and text are a popular keepsake or gift for many people. Such products typically include an image captured by a digital camera that is inserted into the product and is intended to enhance the product, the presentation of the image, or to provide storage for the image. Examples of such products include picture albums, photo-collages, posters, picture calendars, picture mugs, t-shirts and other textile products, picture ornaments, picture mouse pads, and picture post cards. Products such as picture albums, photo-collages, and picture calendars include multiple images. Products that include multiple images are designated herein as photographic products, image products, or photo-products.
Image-based products are frequently designed to represent and record a specific event in a person's life. Examples include weddings, graduations, parties, and vacations. In some situations, all of the images associated with an event are made by one individual who participates in the event or is responsible for recording the event. In other situations, multiple event participants record images associated with the event so that the situation is more complex. For example, different participating individuals can understand the event differently, can participate in different portions of the event at different times, can experience the event in different ways, or can record different parts of the event.
Making image-based products as event keepsakes or mementos, for example, as is commonly done with photo-albums, is often difficult, time-consuming, and tedious. When images from multiple event participants are included in the image-based product, the task becomes even more difficult. The number of images can be very large, collecting the images can be difficult, selecting representative images of high quality without selecting redundant images can be time-consuming, and determining which images are relevant to the event can be problematic.
Imaging tools for automating the specification of photographic products are known in the prior art. For example, tools for automating the layout and ordering of images in a photo-book are available from the Kodak Gallery as are methods for automatically organizing images in a collection into groups of images representative of an event. It is also known to divide groups of images representative of an event into smaller groups representative of sub-events within the context of a larger event. For example, images are segmented into event groups or sub-event groups based on the times at which the images in a collection were taken. U.S. Pat. No. 7,366,994 describes organizing digital objects according to a histogram timeline in which digital images are grouped by time of image capture. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0008321 describes identifying images of special events based on time of image capture. U.S. Pat. No. 7,663,671 describes location-based image classification for images with map location metadata and is incorporated by reference herein its entirety.
Semantic analyses of digital images are also known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,467 describes a method for determining the general semantic theme of a group of images using a confidence measure derived from feature extraction. Scene-content similarity between digital images can also be used to indicate digital-image membership in a group of digital images representative of an event. For example, images having similar color histograms belong to the same event.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0304808 describes a method and system for automatically making an image product based on media assets stored in a database. A number of stored digital media files are analyzed to determine their semantic relationship to an event and are classified according to requirements and semantic rules for generating an image product. Rule sets are applied to assets for finding one or more assets that are included in a story product. The assets, which best meet the requirements and rules of the image product are included.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,036 describes event-based digital content record organization so that retrieval of such digital content in a manner meaningful and logical to users is achieved. In this regard, an event is defined by event boundaries, including a span of time, a geographic area, an acquirer of digital content, or a subject of digital content. This approach relies upon the post-capture analysis and sorting of collected images.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,085,818 describes providing information on proximate events based on current location and user availability. A determination is made of a current location of the wireless device and whether the current location is within a proximity to a target location. If the current location is within the proximity to the target location, information is transmitted. This information is used to schedule events for a user.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,233,933 describes cross-device monitoring, reasoning and visualization for providing status and forecasts of user's presence and availability. Predictive models are used to make forecasts of a user's presence and availability to facilitate collaboration and communications between entities such as parties to a communication. U.S. Pat. No. 7,539,489 discloses apparatus and methods facilitating a distributed approach to performance and functionality testing of location-sensitive wireless systems and equipment.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0111428 describes using image and location information to recognize an event depicted in an image from the image and location information associated with the image. The method includes acquiring the image and its associated location information, using the location information to acquire an aerial image, using the image and the acquired aerial image to identify the event, and storing the event in association with the image.
While these methods are useful for sorting images into event groups, temporally organizing the images, assessing emphasis, appeal, or image quality, or recognizing individuals in an image, there remains a need for improved methods of automating the specification and collection of images related to an event having a plurality of individual participants.